The Little-Known Status and Distribution of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker*

by Strix nebulosa

The Auklet. Centennial Issue. New Yauk, 1983, pages 1-7.

[*This paper was not refereed by Lester L. Short.]

G. Stuart Keith, who unfortunately passed away in 2003, was a
great world birder and ornithologist. I believe he was the first person
to compile a world list in excess of 5,000 birds. His landmark trips to
Africa and Madagascar in the 1950s were without the benefit of tours,
guides and stakeouts. A self-taught naturalist who read Classics at
Oxford, Stuart had a long professional career in ornithology,
culminating in the publication of the magnificent, seven-volume Birds
of Africa, the ultimate reference on the birds of the "dark
continent." But it was birding humor for which I best remember Stuart.
His awards presentations at the annual dinner of the Linnaean Society of
New York, often preceding some dry travelogue by a distinguished guest,
were invariably hysterically funny. Stuart wrote this article for the
Centennial issue of the Auklet, the AOU humor magazine. It is
based on actual reports that certainly are no worse than the alleged
sight records in support of the Arkansas Ivorybill hoax, and actually
are arguably better, as they weren't self-impeached with a misidentified
video of a Pileated Woodpecker. However, the article by Fitzpatrick et
al. claiming a "rediscovery" that somehow got into Science
magazine lacks the polish and sophistication of Stuart's little
masterpiece of ornithological humor.

The ornithological community of North America has long believed that the
Ivory-billed Woodpecker, Campephilus principalis, is "on the verge of
extinction if not extinct" (Robbins et al., 1966), "probably very close to
extinction..." (Terres, 1980), etc. No one wants to pronounce the final
obituary, or sign the death certificate, but suspicions are strong that the
species is no more. There are those who believe that the species still survives
in remote riverine woodlands of Louisiana, Texas, or Mississippi, known only to
certain researchers associated with Louisiana State University, who are sworn to
secrecy by the most dire Creole blood oaths and voodoo spells. Rut the consensus
of scientific thought is that Campephilus principalis is, sensu lato,
a dead duck.

This paper proves that this is a canard, that the presumed extinction or near
extinction of the species is based on false assumptions. In fact, we will
demonstrate that the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, that magnificent creature that is
Number One (Numero Uno) on everyone's want list, is in reality not only fairly
common, but widespread. That the ornithological world is confused by the status
of the species can be blamed entirely on the dominance in recent years of
studies in such fields as ethology and thermoregulation; there seem today to be
a thousand doctoral candidates computerizing the defecation rate of
Empidonaces and the preening postures of the Siberian Tit, whereas no
serious scientist is investigating the whereabouts of the Ivory-billed
Woodpecker. In the review of the literature in a recent issue of The Auk
(Vol. 100, No. 2) for example, there were 506 papers on Behavior and
Vocalization, Ecology and Population, Evolution and Genetics, Feeding and Diet,
General Biology, Migration and Orientation, Morphology, Paleontology,
Pesticides, Taxonomy, etc., and not a single paper on the mysterious whereabouts
of, or the estimated population of, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. Preposterous!

And yet, the author's own research, and the many convincing communications he
has received during the last 13 years, are conclusive evidence that there is a
substantial population of the species, still thriving, and highly visible to
those psychologically receptive, to seeing it, and that the species' range is
perhaps wider today than it was two or three hundred years ago. In fact, using
the same mathematical statistical formulae by which the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service recently calculated the population of Falco peregrinus in North
America at 21,000 (Shepherd, U.S. F. & W. Bull. 1983) one can easily extrapolate
a continental population for Campephilus principalis (excluding Cuba) of
3,621!

The author is not the only collector of records of the species in recent
years. Many museums and conservation organizations quite regularly receive
reports. Dr. Richard C. Banks of the U.S. National Museum, following a newspaper
report of the final demise of the species, received no less than 100 reports of
sightings in just a few weeks; unhappily the file has disappeared, undoubtedly
the work of some subversive group within the museum bent on perpetuating the
extinction myth. The locations of Ivory-billed Woodpecker sightings from the
author's own (partial) file will be found on
Figure 1
(MAP). Place names have been omitted, to save overcrowding of the
small-scale map, but are noted, along with observer, place, and full date, in
Figure 2. A number of other sightings, reported by telephone, are not listed.
However, the thirty-six sightings represented in both figures give a composite
picture quite radically opposed to the official, published status of the
species. Note that this list has sightings as recent as June, 1983, just one
week prior to the deadline for this paper. And sightings will continue to come
in, since the species is so widespread and individuals are so uniquely marked
and highly visible.

Verification remarks, excerpted from the personal communications in which
these sightings were recorded, are also keyed to the map numbers. It should be
noted that sightings numbers 3 and 4 have, in fact, been published several
times, once in Aviculture Magazine, June, 1979, by John V. Dennis, who
also reported on a sighting Nov. 11, 1974, 20 miles west of Baton Rouge, LA.,
and other sightings in Big Thicket, TX, 1966-1976, and in Florida in 1966. The
Agey & Heinzmann observation was published in Florida Naturalist, 44 (3)
1971. These earlier sightings have been well documented, but they do add
credence to our file of more recent reports.

3. "I am convinced that ... the bird may exist in the many remote wilderness
areas of South Carolina. These areas are often inaccessible except by canoe or
johnboat, and no one enters them but a few casual intruders ... or fishermen."

5. "Last fall l saw two of these giant Ivory-billed Woodpeckers, the first of
these birds I had seen in several years. These birds are about the size of a
medium frying chicken."

6. "Please be advised that my wife and I have located a near wilderness area,
within which for about a year, we watched a family of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers,
not the Pileated variety, which are fairly common here. Please don't send any
birdwatchers here."

8. "On this date at 6:30 AM. male Ivory-billed Woodpecker ... sited on dead
sassafras tree, took flight of 100 ft. or more or less to dying Chinese elm.
Then in exquisitely beautiful flight away to neighboring thicket. The white
markings were guide to its identity."

10. "We were never absolutely certain it was an Ivory-billed or Pileated
Woodpecker until just last month when the latter paid our backyard a visit.
Comparing this bird with the bird we saw in Tallahassee, we immediately realized
that our Tallahassee bird was a good deal larger with more white on its back ...
it gives me great pleasure to verify my Tallahassee sighting."

11. "I should report a sighting of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker on our property
here in north Georgia. My wife and I have-seen this bird several times this year
... there is no doubt that this is the bird. We have seen it from a distance of
10-15 feet."

12. (As reported by G.C. Carleton): "She was positive about white bands going
back from the neck to big blocks of white, both on closed wings. She emphasized
a broad, square-shouldered look as compared with the Pileated. She heard the
birds, describing a high trumpet-like call. When I mentioned the Pileated, she
said 'Oh, I have lots of them; their call is a deep kuk, kuk, kuk, kuk."'

14. "Yesterday I was out by my pool when a noise caused me to notice this
large woodpecker ... with an ivory beak and large white areas on his wings that
became even more pronounced when he flew. He was pulling away large areas of
bark from a dead tree in the woods."

18. "This, in our considered opinion, is Not a Pileated. Since that
first sighting we have seen the birds on two more occasions. It appears to be
larger than any Pileated we have seen, its bill is definitely a light color, and
its tail appear pointed when in flight."

22. "I was recently talking to a Mr. Walmsley that lives here on Caddo Lake.
He claims be has definitely identified an Ivory-Billed Woodpecker. There are
several persons who have told me they have seen this bird. I understand there
are very few left."

23. "I was alone except for my three year old grandchild Amy and she, Amy,
even stared in awe at their lively antics about 50 feet away. She might be the
only one in her generation to have seen one of these great birds."

24. "l and my husband are delighted to inform you that we saw in our yard, in
Pound Ridge, New York, today, what we are convinced was an Ivory-billed
Woodpecker."

25. "Although I am not even an amateur watcher I have always been interested
in birds. I believe I saw one (a male) in late Aug. while fishing in a chain of
inland water ways and dense forest known as Beaver Island located in the
Mississippi River opposite Clinton, Iowa."

26. "Saw an Ivory-billed Woodpecker, noon, 11-18-79 near Little Meadows, Pa.,
large but weak, not able to fly."

27. "My wife and I saw an Ivory-billed Woodpecker in our back yard about 8
A.M. on 4-17-81. Standing upright on the side of an old pine about 60 ft. from
our window. This bird was about 18 to 20 inches long ... the bird we saw had a
solid bright red head."

28. "I believe this bird to be an Ivory-billed Woodpecker. I have not
reported this sighting until now because my husband does not wish anyone to come
calling upon us in an effort to bundle me off to the booby hatch. After making a
couple of phone calls, I realize that they have not been sighted by anyone else.
Everyone thinks I am a candidate for the funny farm, but I will persevere."

29. "[The book] stated that any record of one is noteworthy and should be
reported at once. I sighted one several months ago."

30. "He knows the Pileated and it was not that species. He saw the white
bill, etc. Seems like an authentic record."

31. "The resulting transparency shows the Woodpecker in flight, with both
wings down ... it clearly shows a large white area on the back of the wing
nearest me. In addition, the large crest appeared completely black, possibly
indicating that it was a female."

32. "I saw an Ivory-billed Woodpecker this afternoon -- thought it was a hawk
or eagle, but at closer glance I saw its red head and white feather wings. It
was alone, came very close to me (20 ft.) but flew away when my dog moved."

33. "I am writing back to tell you that you are mistaken, and that the birds
are Ivory-billed Woodpeckers. I am positive of this beyond any doubt. My father
has also seen one in May of this year (82)."

34. "I have recently read that the above-mentioned bird is extinct. I don't
believe they are because I see two and three each day in my back yard."

36. "He was huge and when he flew away I noticed his white-tipped wing."

As a postscript. the author has discovered two equally, or perhaps even more
startling records buried in this file. One is a lengthy report, followed by
several more letters of documentation, from Mrs. Theodore Reischmann, of a
multiple sighting of the Passenger Pigeon, Ectopistes migratorius, at
Oakdale, Long Island, in 1971 - a record that extends the known survival of the
species for at least 57 years. The second, dated Jan. 17, 1978, from Gerald
Foster, of Orangeburg, S.C., reports witnessing in 1974 a flight of 8 Carolina
Parakeets, Conuropsis carolinensis at the feeder of Mrs. Spiney, since
deceased, in Edisto Beach, S.C. This sighting extends the known survival of that
species some 60 years.

The ornithological world -- indeed all Americans -- should be thrilled to
finally have proof that this magnificent creature the Ivory-billed Woodpecker,
long considered a secretive denizen of the most remote southern forests, is
neither extinct, endangered, nor secretive, but a very widespread and
conspicuous backyard bird over a range larger than ever previously
reported!